Three-Time Tony Winner Mark Rylance Will Return to New York in Farinelli and the King

We told you that this show had Big Apple transfer written all over it! After successful productions at Shakespeare’s Globe and in the West End, the Mark Rylance-led Farinelli and the King is heading to New York. The Daily Mail reports that the three-time Tony winner will reprise his role as King Philippe V of Spain in the production, which is scheduled to open in November.

Rylance won the Tony for Twelfth Night, Jerusalem and Boeing-Boeing and was nominated for Richard III (which played in rep with Twelfth Night). He has also appeared on the Great White Way in La Bete and is currently starring in Nice Fish at A.R.T before transferring with the show to St. Ann’s Warehouse’s next month. Rylance was recently seen on PBS in the screen adaptation of Hilary Mantel's Booker Prize-winning novel Wolf Hall and has just received an Oscar nod for his performance in Bridge of Spies.

Directed by John Dove and designed by Jonathan Fensom, Claire van Kampen’s (Rylance's wife) new play is set in eighteenth-century Spain and show tells the true story of Farinelli, once the world’s most famous castrato and one of the greatest celebrities of his time, and his decision to trade fame and fortune in the opera-houses of Europe for a life of servitude at the court of King Philippe V. The new play explores the dynamics between Farinelli and the royal couple, featuring many of the exquisite arias first sung by Farinelli in the 1730’s.

The London company included Sam Crane playing the acting role of Farinelli and the singing role shared by Iestyn Davies and Rupert Enticknap, Huss Garbiya as Doctor Jose Cervi, Melody Grove as Isabella Farnese, Colin Hurley as Metastasio and Edward Peel as De la Cuadra.